Make merit

Merit (Buddhism)

Merit (Sanskrit , Pālipuñña) is a concept in Buddhism, and particularly in Theravada Buddhism. Merit can be gained in a number of ways. It is merit that accumulates as a result of good deeds, acts or thoughts and that carries over to later in life or to a person's next birth. Such merit contributes to a person's growth towards liberation. In addition, one can "transfer" the merit of an act they have performed to a deceased loved one in order to diminish the deceased's suffering in their new existence.

Three bases of merit

The Pali canon identifies three bases of merit (Pali: puññakiriyavatthu). In the ("Meritorious actions discourse," AN 8.36 or A 8.4.6), the Buddha identifies the following three bases:

In the Khuddaka Nikaya's Itivuttaka (Iti. 1.22), the three bases are defined as: giving (dānassa), self mastery (damassa) and refraining (saññamassā). Later in this same sutta, the triad is restated as: giving (dāna), a life of mental calm (sama-cariya) and a mind of good-will (metta-citta).

Merit-making

A post-canonical commentary, elaborating on the canonically identified meritorious triad of dana-sila-bhavana (see D.III,218), states that lay devotees can make merit by performing these seven more specific acts:

Rhys Davids, T.W. & William Stede (eds.) (1921-5). The Pali Text Society’s Pali–English dictionary. Chipstead: Pali Text Society. A general on-line search engine for the PED is available at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/dictionaries/pali/. The entry for "sama1" (as in "sama-cariya) is at http://dsal.uchicago.edu/cgi-bin/philologic/getobject.pl?c.3:1:3467.pali.

Thanissaro, Bhikkhu (trans.) (2001). The Group of Ones §22 (Iti. 1.22). Available on-line at http://www.accesstoinsight.org/tipitaka/kn/iti/iti.1.001-027.than.html#iti-022.